pengyoufandomcom-20200214-history
Chapter 34
Previous Chapter "Let's see if bigger is truly better, shall we?" said Drone, kneeling in front of the large vault. He was typing on his keypad on his gauntlet, while his drone Mel was plugged into the entry keypad. Marcus turned to look at Palm, who must have read the word "Survival" on the vault door, because he shivered visibly. Although Palm was dressed differently than the person who helped him against Onyx, something told Marcus that this guy was definitely the same person. He was avoiding his eye contact, too. Somehow, Silvia and Palm knew each other. As Marcus was musing about how Palm and Silvia were connected, suddenly he was interrupted by a wave of dread washing over his body. In a fraction of a second, Marcus surveyed his surroundings. Whatever was triggering his Malicesight, it was coming from either side of the team. He didn't waste a single second telling the team to watch out. Instead he spread out his arms, right hand sparkling, and he raised a barrier of his ki around the group. Right as the barrier was erected, a panel on either side of the vault door slid up, uncovering a large machine gun. They angled their barrels down at the team and opened in deafening fire. The barrier flashed a soft gold as bullet after bullet pounded on the barrier. Marcus glanced at the bullet casings. Anti-armor rounds. These guys weren't fooling around! The rest of the team looked surprised, but Drone recovered first. He stopped typing to reach for another orb clasped on his belt, this one silver-colored, then threw it into the air. It stopped at the apex, and hovered by itself. In the meantime, the barrier Marcus raised was beginning to crack from the relentless attack. Straining, he could see a dark, wispy aura around the area with his Malicesight. He used his free hand, and watched as the aura begin to pull towards his body. The malice he siphoned into his hand made his barrier shine brighter. Now, he no longer had to strain, as his barrier grew more resistant to the steel bullets. The silver orb flew around the machine gun to the right. A barrel emerged from a small opening in the floating drone, and a solid red beam shot out. As it circled around the machine gun, it used its laser to sever the machine gun from the wall, where it fell uselessly to the ground with a loud bang. "No need for a subtle approach now!" decided Marcus, shadowy wisps forming around his left hand. Instead of his forming usual body-length glaive, a rifle-length one appeared in his left hand instead. He pointed it towards the remaining gun on the left. With the absorbed malice from the machine gun ambush, his smaller glaive shot and explosive round of shadowy bullets that blasted at the last mounted machine gun. The gun drooped uselessly, now riddled with numerous shadow-bullet dents. "Excellent work," came Drone's thoughts, still nonchalantly typing away at his gauntlet. "Thanks," replied Marcus sheepishly, dropping the barrier. "I was referring to Cas," came Drone, not even turning his mask-covered face towards Marcus. The silver orb hovered up and down in the air, as if happy for the praise, then flew down and attached itself to Drone's belt. A loud, booming thunk sounded inside the vault door. "And myself," thought Drone, taking back his Mel drone from the keypad. "We're good to go in." Marcus shuddered. The malice behind the door was palatable. "Get ready team," warned Carter, his voice brimming with caution but also with resolve. "Let's get some answers." --- "'THEY'LL NEVER GET PAST THIS DOOR', IS THAT RIGHT?!" roared Director King, sweating. The people outside were capable of doing fearsome things. He was quickly gathering research documents on his desk in front of the giant glass tube in the center. Realizing he heard nothing but silence, he glared across the room. "Well Vince?! ANSWER ME!" While the other lab assistants were cowering together trying to figure out why the people outside weren't talking on their radio anymore, Vince was standing in the middle of the room, staring at the figure in the glass tube, grinning. --- The vault door split open, revealing a gigantic chamber. Marcus and the team scanned the room, its steel-covered walls furnished by strange machines with numerous dials and gauges, then their eyes were directed to the giant glass tank in the center that was emitting an eerie cyan glow across the entire chamber. Slack-jawed, Marcus was alerted to presence of other people. He saw a group scientists cowering off to the side, then he saw the source of the malice he felt: The person in a white lab coat with his back towards the door. "It's an honor to meet the great Marcus Cato." Marcus pointed his gun-glaive forwards. "Who are you?!" he demanded. The scientist spun around theatrically, and bowed. "I am Vincent, of Organization MERLIN." He lifted his head, eyes flashing a dull hazel. "At your service." "Let's escort those scientists on the right to get out," suggested Marcus. "They're not involved with MERLIN." "Come with me," cooed Silvia, holstering her gun away, gesturing to the exit. "It's going to get dangerous, let's get you out of here." The group hesitated, but then broke out into a quick jog, while Silvia directed the scientists behind the team until they all left the room. All the while, Vincent was watching, like a cat ready to pounce. "Alright Vincent," said Marcus aloud. "Tell me. What is Organization MERLIN? What is it that you want?" "Vince, what nonsense is this?!" said the director irritably. "Who are these people?!" Vincent smiled, ignoring Director King, then said, "What the Organization wants is the eventual destruction of itself. Tell me, Marcus Cato. What is it like, hiding away? In fear?" "What is he talking about?" came Palm's voice "Never mind him," replied Drone. "We should be cautious with revealing our abilities. We don't want to give the enemy any extra information. And we still don't know how the director is involved." Marcus nodded, then looked at Vincent again. "...What do you mean?" replied Marcus cautiously. Vincent smiled that cocky half-smile again, then said, "Marcus Cato. Deserter of the military. Living in the Terrace Grove mountains in hiding. Cut off from civilization. Can you really be satisfied with such a life? All the Organization wants to do is accomplish openness. For all." Marcus said nothing, glaring back. Vincent dropped his arm to his side, when a loud bang echoed in the chamber. "Don't. Move." The end of Marcus's gun-glaive was still smoking. Vincent slowly peered back, seeing a star crack on the giant tube in the center. He slowly turned his head to face Marcus again. "Can we not?" said Vincent, his voice absent of smugness. The director made a angry huff noise in protest to all of this, and everyone turned to look at him. "Monsters! Miscreants! FREAKS!" he yelled angrily. "Whatever this is, I'm not involved! Now I'll just be off, and–" "No," said Vincent firmly. "You know far too much, my friend. I can't let you leave with that research." "We should take Arthur King in for questioning. Find out what he knows," suggested Carter. "As for Vincent, be very careful. We don't know how powerful he is, even if you outnumber him." "What is all this, Director King?" said Silvia aloud. "What is it that you're researching?" The director gripped his papers tighter to his chest when he realized the magician somehow knew his name. Then he said, "Things like you." "Why?" she said. The director huffed again, his purple face fading back to red. "As a species, humans are the only ones who actively sets a goal on evolving. The purpose of humanity's evolution is to become stronger. To eliminate the things that threaten your survival." The director adjusted his glasses and continued. "Every disease we cure, every tool we build, it's all about humans trying to evolve more quickly. Become more adaptable. Become invincible. To preserve our survival." He pointed a finger accusingly at Silvia. "And you are the biggest threat to humanity right now." Slow clapping echoed in the chamber. Vincent was looking at the director, amused. "Brilliant speech, Arthur," said Vincent. Silvia reached out her gloved hand. "Come with us, Director King. We want to ask you a few questions." We won't harm you, I swear on it." He sneered. "As if I would go with you." "We just want you to not be further involved with this." The director glanced at Vincent and Marcus, suddenly aware of the tension. "The director won't be going anywhere," said Vincent. "Now, hand over that research like a good little pawn, and–" "Stop right there," Marcus was about to say, but then Vincent crouched and shot towards the director like a black ball of lightning. Marcus quickly responded and shot a spray of shadow-bullets in front of the black blur, which then blasted up, avoiding the attack. The team looked up, and saw Vincent flying about fifteen feet in the air. Marcus took aim and shot another spray of bullets, but then something black shrouded Vincent, and the shadow-bullets bounced off harmlessly. The black-thing then unfurled, revealing Vincent, and spread out to its full wingspan. "VINCE!! YOU'RE ONE OF THEM TOO?!" Vincent, now floating in the air, resembled a dark angel. His black wings beat to keep him levitated in the air. "It seems I'm forced to show my hand," said Vincent. He reached back and plucked a single black feather, almost one foot in length. With a flick, the feather shot like an arrow, traveling downwards in a streak of black towards the glass tube, hitting the exact same spot that Marcus's bullet hit. The tube completely fractured, then broke. Thousands of pieces of glass and liquid rained down. Something else fell down too. Marcus heard Palm's gasp in his head, and saw it. There on the ground, with dozens of tubes still connected to his body, was Onyx. --- * Location: Unknown * Sunday, April 12, 201X "The Organization welcomes all to the Agent's Conclave." Celeste stood from her alabaster throne and looked upon her audience. A few dozen figures stood cloaked in black, harsh contrasts from the devoid white room. "We have quite the agenda today," said Celeste calmly. "I will lead the Conclave, as our leader has yet to arrive." She glanced at Vincent, who was casually leaning against the back wall, arms crossed. "First, let us begin with the status of each of our missions. Vincent." Celeste focused her gaze on him. The rest of the MERLIN members followed her stare to Vincent. "What is your status regarding HaleLabs?" Vincent sighed, knowing Celeste is only addressing him so she could be finished with him sooner. "As you may or may not be aware, MERLIN has already successfully infiltrated HaleCorp's subsidiary, HaleLabs," began Vincent. "Although HaleLabs' purpose is to develop new locating technologies, its project heads have gone under HaleCorp's nose and started off the record projects of developing technologies to locate Users. Mitochondrial markers, GPS tagging, and the like. Furthermore, they have began projects on selective power-suppression devices and other weapons." Vincent glanced at Celeste, who was staring at him with a bored expression on her face. "Of course while such technologies would be of great use to Organization MERLIN, it's not worth the problems that would arise if these people have access to such technologies," said Vincent, shooting Celeste a smile. "As such, I'm working overtime to ensure that that never happens. Even more so now that Onyx was captured." The audience let out an audible gasp. Celeste cleared her throat, and the members' rabbles grew silent, eager to hear more. "Onyx had failed to capture his target, and had sustained serious injuries," continued Vincent. "Before we were able to teleport to his location, he was found and captured by HaleLabs scientists." The figures murmured amongst each other, for Onyx had shown a lot of promise. Celeste looked at Vincent once more. "Am I right to assume," she continued. "That HaleCorp and their CEO, Helga Hale, remains oblivious to the true activities of HaleLabs? And of the existence of Users?" Vincent nodded. "I've done enough spying in the company to conclude that's the case." Celeste briefly smiled, but in an instant it was gone, replaced by her stoic expression. Her eyes suddenly flashed white. "There's a developing situation. There is a User who has stolen the Honjo Masumane at the museum. I believe his name is Worth." "Shall we make him one of our targets?" asked one of the cloaked MERLIN agents. "He has already attracted the public eye. It would be unwise to capture him at the moment," said Celeste, her eyes returning to hazel. "Besides, his abilities make him merely a Class-C User. He will not be a top priority. Now, moving on." She turned to look at another cloaked figure in the crowd. "Sabrina, I have a mission for you. Do you remember our old friend, Doctor Randall?" --- Onyx's eyes suddenly opened, and he sat up, gasping for air. He looked down, nearly naked and dripping wet, and grabbed all the tubes in one hand and yanked them out from his body. He looked around the room, and saw Marcus and the others staring at him in shock. "YOU," Onyx sneered. "YOU." "The test subject!" yelled Director King. Sensing that it was going to get very dangerous, he grabbed a couple more devices from his desk and fled, heading to a door towards the back of the room. "Wait!" said Silvia, but the director ignored her. Onyx was watching the director fled. "YOU EXPERIMENTED ON ME!" He reached his hand out towards the fleeing man, but no earth followed his command. The director made it to the back and locked the door behind him. "That won't work. There's no earth in this chamber," said Vincent, slowly descending. Onyx looked up towards him. "Vincent. Well good, at least you can make yourself useful." "Hmph," replied Vincent, genuinely hurt. "There may be no earth, but," Onyx put his hands on his thigh, staggering when he stood. He reached towards the metallic floor and clenched, veins popping. "I can feel the unpurified earth in this room. In the steel." With a roar, he swung his arm up, and a layer of metal peeled away from the floor and covered Onyx's arm in rough folds. Everyone looked at Onyx's new abilities in shock, even Vincent. "We'll capture them all." Next Chapter